


you've got the beauty inside

by Calex



Category: Social Network (2010)
Genre: Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-02-19
Updated: 2011-02-19
Packaged: 2017-10-15 18:31:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,694
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/163661
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Calex/pseuds/Calex
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dustin is a fan of romantic gestures. But romance, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. And he and Chris have a very special brand of romance.</p>
            </blockquote>





	you've got the beauty inside

**Author's Note:**

  * For [thisissirius](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thisissirius/gifts).



> For [](http://thisissirius.livejournal.com/profile)[**thisissirius**](http://thisissirius.livejournal.com/), one of my biggest cheerleaders and who definitely deserves a little happy ending after what I did to her favourite OTP :P Also, yes, I totally went there and used Manboy lyrics for the title.

Dustin has always been one for romantic gestures.

It amuses him to think of it now, since it's so unexpected coming from Dustin, but it's true. Dustin is a big ball of romantic goo to his very core, wrapped in a layer of bright optimism and ridiculousness. It's perhaps evidence of how far gone he is that he finds Dustin's bizarre ridiculousness _charming_ and _endearing_ , instead of annoying. It took him far too long to see it for what it is, and he had wasted years being annoyed and irritated and fighting off the urge to laugh.

It starts in Harvard.

* * *

Chris is a humanities major - history, because he likes the drama and the grand tales, but also the _truth_ of it, and how the truth can be spun to be perceived in so many different ways (among other things - but he's somehow sharing a room in his freshman year with an economics major.

His name is Dustin Moskovitz and he has constantly messy hair that he claims is _artful_ and _fashionable_ (though really, it's just laziness) and he dresses in a way that frankly despairs Chris. Yet somehow, impossibly, they become friends. Dustin is a mass of contradictions: he acts like an idiot, but he's in Harvard so he can't possibly be actually stupid. And that is evidenced by the way that even though his chosen major is economics, Dustin creates things in lines of code that makes Chris's brain ache.

He wants to minor in Comp Sci, Dustin reveals during a night spent drinking cheap beer and playing _Call of Duty_ because it's something he _loves_ , but his parents would rather he major in something more "useful". He even did air quotes, rolling his eyes and Chris laughs, slightly tipsy and feeling like everything in the world is bright and rosy because they are college freshman in _Harvard_ and the world is at their feet.

* * *

Dustin is actually really fucking good at coding. He makes friends with Mark Zuckerberg, who is in his Comp Sci classes and is brilliant and also completely lacking in social skills and tact. The fact that Mark tolerates Dustin tells Chris more than words can, and suddenly Mark is a constant presence in their room, lost behind the glow of his laptop as his fingers fly over the keyboard, and Dustin sitting on the floor by the couch, computer resting precariously on his outstretched legs as he tries to code and play games at the same time.

Somehow, he still manages to beat Chris's high score. Then again, Chris is admittedly really terrible at any game not an RPG. And Dustin makes more use of their battered console than he does, anyway.

But anyway, Chris comes back to their room after a long day, and Dustin's shoulder to shoulder with Mark and he looks up with a bright, hazy grin that tells Chris that he's drunk more than the empty bottles of beer that litters the ground does. He and Mark are having a competition, Dustin reveals as his fingers never stop typing. To see who can code better when they're drunk.

Mark wins, of course, but Dustin makes him work for it.

* * *

Dustin introduces Chris to Eduardo Saverin towards the end of freshman year. Eduardo's in his Economics class, both of them going for the major in Econs, and he's so impeccably dressed and beautifully mannered that it takes Chris a while to figure out that despite appearances and stereotype, Eduardo isn't actually gay. Chris and Eduardo hit it off, but what surprises Chris is how much Mark takes to him, and how much Eduardo takes to Mark.

Dustin grins secretively at Chris, eyes bright and laughing like he's sharing a delicious bit of gossip, or a secret, just with Chris. He leans in and places a bet that Mark and Eduardo will get together by the end of the semester in a terrible stage whisper that has Eduardo flushing and Mark narrowing his eyes.

Chris doesn't take sucker bets, though, so he refrains.

They're proven right one day when they come into the room to find Eduardo and Mark springing away from each other, both scarlet and breathing a little harder. Dustin cracks up and nudges at Chris with his elbow and says, brightly, that he totally called it.

Chris just rolls his eyes and smiles indulgently.

* * *

Chris is down with a high fever, and he's delirious and so weak he can barely stand. He spends three days stuck in bed, unable to move. Dustin brings him soup and places cool towels on his forehead and tells him in a soft, gentle voice to rest and how much Chris owes Dustin. _Seriously, man, for fucking_ life. Chris manages to muster up a smile and retorts that it only makes sense for Dustin to take care of him, considering how he's practically Dustin's babysitter.

Dustin punches his shoulder, but it's careful and Chris can read the worry in his expressive eyes clear as day.

* * *

Dustin loves Valentine's Day. On their first, he actually sends Chris a parcel through the mail. Chris looks at it suspiciously because the box has his name written on it in Dustin's chicken scratch writing and _what is Dustin thinking_? But Dustin grins artlessly and tells him to open it, so Chris gives in.

On a bed of bubble wrap is a huge and badly made card shaped like a heart. It says simply

 _Roses are red  
Violets are blue  
Even if you don't have a date, man  
You'll always be part of my crew_

 _Love and kisses,  
Dustmeister_

Chris laughs so hard his stomach hurts and he has to sit down. But he sticks the card on his door and grins every time he sees it.

* * *

In the middle of sophomore year, Chris comes back to the dorm to find Dustin on the couch watching a bootleg copy of _Jurassic Park_. He drops his bag and jacket on the floor and trudges over to collapse next to Dustin. He's staring dully at the screen, not taking anything in. He can feel Dustin staring at him but for once Dustin waits until he's ready to speak.

"Aaron dumped me," Chris says, finally. His voice is flat and as emotionless as he can manage, but it's still bitter. They'd been dating for four months and Chris knows it's not _love_ , but damn it, he'd caught Aaron cheating on him with some slutty twink and Aaron had broken up with _him_? It was insulting.

"Want me to go beat him up?" Dustin offers, after a moment of contemplative silence. Chris laughs and shakes his head, leaning down so their closer together, pressed from shoulder to hip on the couch.

"No offence, but I think he'd flatten you. And I kind of like you alive," he says, tiredly. Dustin pulls and over exaggerated look of outrage, but then his fingers are combing through Chris's hair, gentle and sweet.

"So option two, then. We've got a tub of Rocky Road and I just downloaded a bunch of movies. Do you feel up for violence or chick flick?"

"Violence, please," Chris sighs, and that's how he spends his night on Dustin's bed eating ice cream out of the tub and watching _Fight Club_ on Dustin's laptop. Dustin doesn't ask any more questions and Chris doesn't offer any answers.

It's pretty much everything he needs.

* * *

When Mark starts dating Erica Albright, Dustin bursts into their room looking mutinous and disappointed. Chris pats the space next to him on the couch and Dustin flops down in a flailing of awkward limbs before arranging himself so that his head is on Chris's lap. Chris automatically starts carding his fingers through Dustin's hair.

"I'm not the only one who thinks he's being an idiot, am I?" Dustin asks plaintively, nearly an hour later. Chris shakes his head and they lapse into almost dejected silence. This time, _Jaws_ is on the TV and there's no ice cream. But Eduardo turns up with fancy imported beer and a slump to his shoulders and really, that's probably better.

* * *

Years later, after everything has truly gone to hell, Dustin is on Chris's sofa in his new apartment. _American Idol_ is on TV because both he and Dustin like to ruthlessly mock the more ridiculous auditions. Dustin's head is in Chris's lap and Chris is playing with his hair as they make snarky commentary to godawful singing. They've lapsed into comfortable silence when Dustin suddenly grips Chris's fingers to still them. Chris looks down and finds Dustin watching him instead of the TV. Dustin's eyes are dark and he's licking his lips nervously, but Chris patiently waits him out because that's what he does.

"I love you," Dustin manages to say, hardly stuttering over the words and Chris almost stops breathing. It's never been said, in all this time. After the drama they watched and lived through. When Mark and Eduardo fell apart, Chris and Dustin remained the same. Yet -

"Chris," Dustin says, sitting up, and he's twined their fingers together and his other hand is cupping Chris's cheek. His expression is oddly seriously, and his thumb is brushing unconscious strokes over Chris's cheekbone. "I'm serious."

"Okay," Chris says, releasing a shaky breath. Dustin laughs a little, and then they're kissing, his hands fisting in Dustin's hoodie (and Dustin really needs to stop taking styling tips from _Mark_ , god). Chris kisses him desperately, needy, like he's always wanted to and is gratified when Dustin only moans and pushes for more. Pushes so that he's straddling Chris, a comfortable lapful in ratty jeans and oversized hood. Chris links his hands behind Dustin, presses the heels of his hands against the small of Dustin's back as he leans his forehead against the sharp jut of Dustin's collarbone.

Dustin is one for romantic gestures, but he knows exactly what's right for them. And what's right for them is _this_ \- this comfort and ease and naturalness.

"Christopher Hughes," Dustin intones, slightly breathless. "Will you go steady with me?"

And Chris laughs as he leans up to kiss Dustin silent. Because _this_ \- ridiculous and hilarious and silly - is just

Perfectly them.


End file.
